Inflatable devices typically have inflation manifolds that project outwardly from an exterior surface thereof. The manifold is engageable by an inflator member that is in screw threaded engagement with a compressed gas cartridge such as a CO.sub.2 cartridge. The inflator includes a lever arm that, when pivoted, drives a cartridge-piercing pin into the cartridge to perform the function its name implies. Gas escaping from the cartridge enters the inflation manifold and thus inflates the device.
An elongate, flexible lanyard extends between the lever arm of the inflator and a handle so that when the handle is pulled, the lever arm is constrained to pivot about a pivot shaft, thereby driving the cartridge-piercing pin into the cartridge.
Thus, the lanyard can separate from the handle when the handle is pulled sharply, as is usually the case in emergency situations.
A current method of securing the handle to the lanyard involves molding the handle into sandwiching relation to the lanyard. Typically, the mold is constructed so that the opposite halves of the handle have protuberances formed therein that pinch the lanyard at several places along its extent. The pinching does defeat facile separation of the lanyard and handle, but does not defeat separation when the handle is pulled hard.
In another known method, an aperture is formed in the handle and the lanyard is threaded therethrough and is either tied or otherwise secured as by crimping.
Accordingly, there is a clear need for an improved apparatus and method of interconnecting handles and lanyards that insures against lanyard and handle separation, but the prior art, taken as a whole, neither teaches nor suggests how the lanyard and handle interconnection heretofore known could be improved.